7 Things I Learned in London

https://youtu.be/4_2mvcyMkuc

Today, I'm in my home base in Louisville, Kentucky…but I'm still thinking about my recent trip to London. And today, I want to share 7 things I learned there.

My goal is to show you how to travel around the world…in style and on a budget.

And sometimes, I might do that by making mistakes. And when I do, I'm going to tell you about them and about the things I'm learning about travel so that maybe, you can make fewer mistakes and have amazing trips! 

So let's start with lesson one that England taught me: 

Your body may react. 

I'm a pretty healthy person. I work out regularly and before my trip, I prepped my legs by doing a lot of walking. I knew I'd be walking a lot in London. I got shoes and broke them in. I planned my schedule carefully. I felt good and I felt ready to take on this historic city. 

And then, I got sick. Like horribly sick. I got so sick in London, I was still sick on my next trip after London. 

I did try to rally, but there were some dicey moments and I had a difficult time. So my advice is: bring a selection of over the counter medicine with you on your trip. Because getting sick in a foreign place and trying to go seek out medicine can turn into a whole thing. 

Speaking of stuff you should bring with you, here's another important thing I learned. 

Attach your phone to yourself.

You will buy lots of stuff for your trip. Make sure one thing you buy is a wrist strap for your cell phone. So, you put a tab with a little metal ring at the end of it inside your phone case. You put it so that the little ring sticks out of the phone and voila. Attach your wrist strap. 

Now, the reason I got this is because many YouTubers say there is a phone snatching issue in London. You can be walking down the street with your phone, someone rides by on a bike or a scooter and yanks your phone right out of your hand. I did not see this behavior firsthand but I got the wrist strap anyway, and it was my best purchase for the whole trip.

This little dude saved my phone.

Okay, so I'm walking in Hyde Park. I'm taking pictures, I'm looking at my walkthrough instructions, I'm watching the animals frolic and BOOM. Phone falls out of my hand.

The brand new phone I got just for the trip. 

But the wrist strap caught it. My phone did not fall on the paved walkway in Hyde Park. It just dangled safely off my wrist. This whole deal,  tab and wrist strap, $5, okay? This investment saved me all the money I spent on a new phone because I do not get insurance.

I refuse to get insurance because I once paid for insurance for four years in a row and when my phone completely fried itself and freaked out and I was like, hey I need to cash in on that insurance and replace my phone, they denied me. And I'm still pissed. So I will never get phone insurance because I'm my experience, it does nothing but give you an extra bill. So, the wrist strap is my insurance policy and this one actually does work.

I took my wrist strap everywhere in London. I also took a tote bag. I kept this with me while I was out and about in the city. This was for my snacks, water bottle, my camera equipment, this kind of stuff. But what I should have put in my bag and what I recommend you keep in yours is a jacket.

Okay, I don't care what the temperature is like when you leave the hotel. I don't care what the meteorological forecast says. Take a jacket because London weather can turn in an instant with no warning. 

This is our next lesson.

Have a jacket.

The Viking invasion of England didn't stop. Ignore the historians. Because Viking wind from Scandinavia is still terrorizing London and making the land highly inhospitable in a second. 

I actually missed out on an entire attraction in London, one I really wanted to see, because I had to make a pit stop and purchase a jacket on the fly. You can learn more about that I'm my video about the Top 5 things I missed and you can see the jacket I bought in action in my London fashion video.

So, I came back home with a story about a jacket instead of about this great attraction that I saw. Don't be like me. Prepare for the cold Viking winds. Have a jacket with you at all times in London regardless.

Since we're off on a topic about stuff to take and pack:

Extra socks.

My impromptu shopping trip was further lengthened by the fact that I had to buy socks. And if you saw my packing video, you know I brought a crapload of socks on this trip.

It wasn't enough. I still needed more. So my advice is to bring literally twice the number of socks you think you'll need. That sounds like a lot and if you don't wear them all, fine. Put them back in the drawer when the trip is over.

But you'll wear them all. You need extra socks, so put them in your luggage. 

My next tip has nothing to do with bringing stuff. This is about:

Being a tourist and dealing with other tourists.

Never have I ever been treated quite as rudely in my life as I was treated in London. Now, full disclosure, I'm from the American South where there is an emphasis on good manners. This is particularly taught to southern women like myself. So, I'm used to holding doors for people, having doors held for me, helping people carry things if they are struggling, picking up items someone else has dropped, this kind of thing.

Do not expect any of this if you are a tourist somewhere. This is not a reflection on London or British people. I'm specifically trash talking the other tourists you'll encounter. I was shoved. I was pushed. I was touched everywhere. I was physically moved. I was cut off. I was ignored. If you're a polite tourist like me, you are going to struggle. People will get in front of you. They will push themselves right on you or in front of you to see what they want and they do not care if you are standing there. 

I'm not sure how much of this is size related. I'm pretty petite, so I'm fairly easy to push around. I'm also not sure how much of it is gender related. I'm a woman and where I'm from, we don't have the same rights as the guys. I don't get to legally make decisions about my body in my state and in my country, so other people treat me and my body as if we don't exist or matter. 

I had a ton of people look me right in the face and then push past me or shove me around as if I was not there. 

All I can say is, you don't have to be like that. You don't have to try to push back. That makes things worse. Just say excuse me. You can convey a lot with this phrase.

Just let them be rude, don't contribute to it and you'll get a chance to see what you're trying to see. 

Unless there's a tour group. I encountered tour groups at literally every attraction in London and these people tend to act like they're the only people there at any given location. The groups are large and loud and they will 100 percent be gathered around something you also want to see.

And since they're going to act like you don't exist, you're just going to have to wait until they clear out.

Perhaps my bad experiences with other tourists are because I was in a somewhat weakened condition in London, and I'm not talking about being sick.

I was also pretty hungry. And that's our next lesson.

Just because there are lots of options doesn't mean you'll find food to eat.

I really wanted to experience British food, and I did. You can find out more about that particular odyssey in my guide to British food blog but to summarize, I did not have an awesome experience. So, my advice here is don't be afraid to try non-local cuisine. And bring your own snacks, stuff you know you like. Also, and I can't say this enough, please do not get prawn flavored chips. even when they are called crisps.

So, I learned a lot in London. But the biggest lesson I learned was this:

Add extra time for lines and traffic.

Then, add more time. You will be standing and doing nothing a lot. You will be sitting and waiting a lot. You will be aggravated by it. So, add extra time to your itinerary. Add more on top of that. And make sure you have a portable phone charger on you because you'll use it more than you think. 

Overall, I had a truly amazing time in London. I learned a lot, I saw a lot, I didn't eat a lot and I did not manage to get my hands on the royal crown, so my plan to crown myself Queen of England at Westminster Abbey didn't fully work out. But Prince George is still single, so maybe I'll still get there.

London done. Now that I've thoroughly explored this city, it's time to embark on a new adventure. So now, I can announce my next destination. Where will we be traveling next?

Athens, Greece! Join me in my next posts while we walk with the gods, explore ancient history and eat food and drink coffee until we drop! Join me on the next epic adventure, and I hope to see you out there someday.